Biography

Some time in September 1901, the deceased drowned when he fell down King's Well, near Mt Morgans. He is buried at the soak near King's Well. He had been in Morgans for a few weeks and was noticed to be acting in an eccentric manner. He started to ride to- Laverton, but returned, saying that he had lost his bicycle in the bush. Subsequently, he reached Laverton, where he left some property. Nothing was then heard of him for several weeks. Circumstances of a somewhat peculiar nature were that there was no food in the stomach and that the deceased's boots and trousers were off and floating in the water. Two teamsters camped at King's Well on or about 18 October 1901 and on hauling up the bucket, brought up a pair of man's trousers. There was an awful stench coming from the well and then they saw a man's body floating in the well. The Mt Morgan's police were informed. On bringing the body up, after the usual examinations, they thought of the burial part. There is a creek running near this well and a soak was dug in the creek but it was dry at this particular time. The police, either from laziness or some other reason, placed the body in the soak with the assistance of two so-called prospectors. At the inquest held on 31 October 1901 at Mt Morgans, the jury returned a verdict that in their opinion the body found in King's Well was that of a man known as Harry Baker, late of Menzies, that death was caused by failure of the heart's action and that there was nothing definite to prove whether he fell down the well accidentally or committed suicide. The deceased had been working as a late night watchman at Menzies.